The University of Dayton won bragging rights over Ohio State with a 60-59 NCAA tournament victory Thursday, and the Flyers' hometown paper wasted little time taking advantage by going where dozens of NFL football players' self-introductions have gone before.
Get today's front page! Read more about UD upsetting OSU; local Honda plant makes history: http://t.co/qJPLCfpPh0 pic.twitter.com/EWtN03HqRv
— DaytonDailyNews.com (@daytondailynews) March 21, 2014
"THE University of Dayton" was the headline Dayton Daily News editors chose to share news of the victory, a clear reference to the way in-state rival Buckeye fans identify their school.
Insisting on using that particular article might grate on the nerves of those who do not count themselves among "Buckeye Nation", but it is more appropriate than many might actually know. That's because "The Ohio State University" became the official name of the school, per state legislation, in 1878 when it was decided the original name, "Ohio Agricultural and Mechanical College" no longer fully described the scope of the education offered by the institution.
Nonetheless, UD and its fans might get to bask in the glory of their hard-earned tournament victory for a while given that Ohio State has not shown much interest in scheduling in-state schools in recent years.
The Buckeyes and Flyers have only played 10 times in history with the last regular season meeting coming in December 1988. The last meeting prior to Thursday was a 74-63 Ohio State victory in the NIT in 2008.
Ohio State head coach Thad Matta did not sound eager to make meetings with the higher-level programs in the state such as Dayton, Xavier or Cincinnati more frequent when asked about it during pregame interviews in Buffalo.
"I think that people don't understand, in terms of what goes on in a college basketball season, in terms of the offâseason, all the things that you're trying to do, just the length of it," he said. "Our schedule, in terms of what I would like to do with it, and the Big TenâACC challenge, those types of things, it's just, in our minds, not as conducive. I think we've played probably close to 15 Ohio schools in my ten years at Ohio State, and I think I'm the first guy that's done that. I don't think anybody else did that very often."
Follow on Twitter @marcushartman
